


The Voice Under All Silences (With All Good Intent Remix)

by helens78



Category: due South
Genre: Courtship, Engagement, M/M, POV Outsider, Remix, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-06
Updated: 2011-04-06
Packaged: 2017-10-17 16:46:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/178906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helens78/pseuds/helens78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Diefenbaker knows something's going on when he notices the metal bands on Fraser and Ray's fingers.  But then, he's been here the whole time, keeping an eye on Ray.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Voice Under All Silences (With All Good Intent Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wintercreek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintercreek/gifts).
  * Inspired by [here is the deepest secret nobody knows](https://archiveofourown.org/works/161453) by [wintercreek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintercreek/pseuds/wintercreek). 



When Fraser and Ray come home, they're both giddy. Diefenbaker curls up on the sofa and ignores them; they're liable to duck into their bedroom and make human-noises and human-smells for a few hours before one or the other of them starts snoring. Not that Diefenbaker can blame them--if he had a mate who was constantly in heat, he might not get much done, either.

He sneaks into their room when the snoring noises start up, hopping up onto Fraser's feet, crawling over so he can lie down between them. Ray wakes for a moment, but soon enough he's snoring again.

Family. Home. _Mates._ Something smells different about tonight; it's just a matter of which one of them confesses first.

* * *

Diefenbaker's embarrassed to admit it now, but it took him a while to warm up to Ray as a potential mate for his human.

Sure, Ray smelled good--spice, sweat, human, _coffee coffee coffee_ , nom, _chocolate chocolate chocolate_. And maybe Diefenbaker's tongue got ahead of himself, but Ray's ear was right there for the licking; what was he supposed to do, resist?

Still, a good smell isn't everything. The female human, the dark one, the one who hurt him--she smelled good, too, frost and wind and roses and spaghetti sauce. Urgent human-smells, dark with a female's heat-scent, nothing about it to give away what she really meant to do. She smelled good enough to fool him, to fool Fraser, and Diefenbaker thought, _fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice, shame on you._

Fraser's scent changed around Ray. It started out as nothing serious--mating-scent, lust-scent. Heady, but faint; Fraser was a rare male animal who wasn't led around by his urge to mate.

When it began changing into something else-- _mate_ -scent, protection-scent, one-and-only-scent--Diefenbaker started to worry.

* * *

The scratch and zip of Ray's fingers through Diefenbaker's fur is different this morning, but, oh, _scratching_ , bellyfur, bellyfur, back of neck, _there_ , Ray, _there_ , Ray, more more more _wheeeeee_! Diefenbaker's hindquarters are going to ache, later, from all the wagging.

When Ray slows down, though, Diefenbaker takes in the difference. Cold? Not-cold. Hard? Not-hard. Something small, something tiny, a little burst of... wait, he can smell it now. He licks Ray's fingers, his right hand. Metal?

Metal. It probably means something, but Diefenbaker can't figure what. He sticks his head in Ray's lap, hoping for more scratching behind the ears.

* * *

Diefenbaker had no idea why Fraser said it was undignified to go loping after the pretty blonde women he encountered; just because Fraser was picky didn't mean Diefenbaker couldn't sniff around all he wanted.

This one was always in such a hurry, though. Her legs were swift, her steps very certain, and when she looked at Ray, her scent was so confusing it almost made Diefenbaker lie down on the floor and put his paws over his muzzle. Love! Hate! Fear! Concern! Mate! Not-mate! Diefenbaker gave up.

Ray, when he looked at her, gave all the body-motions of a mate trying to come in and protect his female. Service, his posture said. Love. Hope. One-and-only. But how? They were anything but mates; Diefenbaker had a feeling that if Ray tried to mount the female, she'd respond by trying to tear out his throat. Or perhaps it wouldn't be quite that bad, but still--he wasn't wanted. And he didn't seem to notice, or care.

But after she was gone, Ray's scent didn't change. It wasn't a matter of leftover, lingering scent, based on thoughts about the female, although Diefenbaker wondered at first. No--when he looked at Fraser, his body language changed, but his scent was still the same. Love. Hope. One-and-only.

Diefenbaker scratched his ear with his back paw, tucking that thought away for later.

* * *

Diefenbaker licks Fraser's hand, too, and he gets a similar taste. Metal! Again, metal. Are they leashes? How odd, to have a leash on a paw. Out of the way, though. Maybe it's for convenience. Maybe it's just one of those weird things about humans.

He noses at the leash and blinks up at Fraser. Fraser smiles down at him.

"Yes, it's new. Perhaps you should ask Ray about it."

Diefenbaker turns in a circle, feigning inattention, disinterest. Fine. If Fraser won't tell him, he _will_ ask Ray.

* * *

The first time Fraser slept over at Ray's, Diefenbaker whined for a walk six times before Fraser gave up and went home. At the time, it seemed like it made more sense, like it was better that way. Safer.

Soon enough, though, there was a second time. Diefenbaker tried whining for a walk again, but this time Ray climbed out of bed to take him outside. Behind Ray's apartment building, Diefenbaker paced back and forth, too nervous to attend to nature's call. Why Ray? Why were they alone? What did Ray want from him?

Ray sat down on the steps outside his apartment and grinned at Diefenbaker. It didn't seem like a dangerous grin.

"So tell me if I got this right. Is this a territory thing? In which case, thank you for not whizzing on the furniture upstairs."

Diefenbaker tilted his head. Territory?

"I mean, I get that you and Fraser, you been together forever. Since you were..." Ray put his hand down near the ground, pup-high. "And I know you been through a lot. So I'm not trying to get in between you, but I gotta say, between you and me..."

Diefenbaker came up close, nose near Ray's knee. Secrets! Diefenbaker was used to keeping confidences--Francesca had many, many secrets, and was always good for a donut or two so long as he promised to keep his muzzle shut--but a Ray-secret?

"I got it real bad for him."

The burst of scent that washed over Diefenbaker was unmistakable this time. Lust-scent, heat-scent, mate-scent, _forever_ -scent. Ray stroked a hand over Diefenbaker's head and scratched behind his ears.

"You think I could actually tell him? Think he'd take it okay?"

Diefenbaker whuffled and shook his head. Too early, even if Fraser's scent said the same thing Ray's did. Fraser was skittish. Funny; if Diefenbaker had had to guess, he would have pictured _Ray_ as the skittish one, after all the time he'd spent chasing the blonde female.

"Yeah, me neither. It's okay. Not in a hurry. I can wait."

Diefenbaker nodded, ready to follow Ray back upstairs--and then realized, suddenly, that it wasn't time to go back in yet; he had to do what he was out here to do. He found a private enough spot and relaxed, and when he was finished, Ray held the door for him as they came inside.

He stopped trying to get Fraser to go home after that.

* * *

When Ray finally tells him, Diefenbaker almost wants to bark out an _Ah-ha!_ It _is_ a leash. The human kind of leash, the mate-leash, the kind that says that this human and that human are bonded.

"You wanna see? Sure, here, check it out."

Diefenbaker noses at Ray's leash--no, his ring, the silver one he's wearing on his right hand. He blinks up at Ray, because surely there's more to the story than just dinner and Fraser's answer.

"Wha--no, I am not going to tell you what I said. That's private."

Diefenbaker huffs, but he gets several nice ear scratches out of it, and Ray does invite him to the wedding. He wonders whether things will change at all, whether he should do something special to let Ray know he accepts him, too--that Ray's pack now, that he'd protect Ray the same way he's spent his life protecting Fraser.

He stuffs his nose into Ray's crotch and wags his tail, and Ray yelps, nudging Diefenbaker's head away. Fine, then; Diefenbaker hops up, paws on Ray's shoulder, and gives Ray's ear a lick.

"Man, I really hope that means I got your blessing," Ray says. "I probably should have asked for it beforehand." His face is teasing, though, his grin full of cheerful good humor.

As he follows Ray back into the Consulate, Diefenbaker holds his head up, tail still wagging. Fraser did well for a mate, Diefenbaker decides. He did very, very well.

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from an e. e. cummings poem, "[being to timelessness as it's to time](http://thegladdestthing.com/poems/being-to-timelessness-as-its-to-time)":  
> 
>
>> love is the voice under all silences,  
> the hope which has no opposite in fear;  
> the strength so strong mere force is feebleness:  
> the truth more first than sun, more last than star...
> 
> The parenthetical part of the title comes from a k. d. lang song, "This", from "All You Can Eat".


End file.
